An environmental impact evaluation system for sustainable concrete in South Korea

Abstract

This study aims to develop a system for evaluating the environmental impacts of concrete production, transportation, and manufacturing processes, as well as the associated recovery costs for ecological damage. To achieve this, limitations in existing life cycle assessment (LCA) methods were analyzed, and improvements and future directions were proposed. A scenario model covering raw material production, transportation, and manufacturing was constructed, and an environmental impact database was established using process flow analysis and data from Korean ready-mixed concrete sites. Environmental impacts of standard concrete were evaluated using top 20%, mode, and average values for key impact categories. A case study was conducted to assess the applicability of the developed system, which calculates environmental impact and cost based on concrete compressive strength. Results showed strong reliability, with calculated life cycle carbon emissions closely matching those of standard concrete (236.57, 235.89, and 240.04 kg-CO₂eq/m³, respectively). Variations across six impact categories ranged from − 7.9 to 0.1%, validating the proposed methodology. Compared to other studies, the environmental impact differences fell within − 4–12%. These findings demonstrate the potential to accumulate robust sustainability assessment data for ready-mixed concrete. Such data can support comparative analyses of future studies and the development of a comprehensive environmental impact assessment system for concrete, applicable to both governmental and private sectors.